


Overly Cautious

by elyneri



Series: Nature Calls [4]
Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-06
Updated: 2014-06-06
Packaged: 2018-02-03 14:16:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1747604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elyneri/pseuds/elyneri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beth injures herself while running from walkers. A series of short one shots set between episodes Still (12) and Alone (13). I will continue to add one shots to it as I write them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Overly Cautious

Some distance down the road, Beth and Daryl could see walkers. The walkers hadn't noticed them yet, so they quickly slipped off the road and headed down the hill. Beth led the way while Daryl guarded their rear. It was slow going as the slope was relatively steep and the underbrush made it unsteady.

Beth was halfway down the hill when the ground gave way from under her feet. She couldn't keep her balance and she tipped forward. Still mindful of the walkers close by, Daryl softly shouted, "Beth!" as he helplessly watched her tumbled the rest of the way down the hill.

Beth came to rest at the bottom of the hill. She landed on her knees and her hands came slamming down on the ground to keep her from face planting. Pain shot through Beth's right hand and she hissed in pain. She sat up and cradled her hand as Daryl quickly made his way down the hill to her side. "You okay?" he asked as he kneeled next to her.

"Yeah, I'm okay. It's just a scratch." Beth saw the concern etched on Daryl's face when she said this. Beth uncurled her fingers and held out her palm to Daryl so he could see.

Daryl grabbed her hand with both of his. Beth sucked a breath in as Daryl fully opened her hand to examine the cut. "Good. It's not deep." Daryl pulled out one of the bottles of their drinking water from her bag. He gently pulled the wound open as he poured water over it to clean the dirt out of the open wound. "This will have to do until we can find a safe spot to make camp."

Beth didn't comment about Daryl being overly cautious. Without access to medicine and antibiotics, even a small cut like this could easily turn deadly from infection if it wasn't properly taken care of. Beth had learned from her dad that you could never be overly cautious of open wounds in this new world.

When Daryl judged they had put enough distance between them and the walkers on the road, they set up camp for the night. Like usual, Beth started to help Daryl until he stopped her. "Sit. I'll take care of it."

"Daryl," Beth said with a little exasperation. "I'm fine." Daryl ignored her and took Beth by her arm as he guided her to sit down.

"Just rest and worry about keeping your cut clean. That was quite a tumble you took." Before Beth could protest some more, Daryl started building a fire before hanging their alarm system up. Beth didn't attempt to try to set up camp when Daryl wasn't looking. He was right, she did take quite a tumble. Beth was fine, but a majority of her body felt bruised. Beth felt like she had hit every single rock that was on that damn hill. She was lucky that she walked away with only a cut on her palm and probably a few bruises.

When Daryl returned, he grabbed the backpack sitting next to Beth on his way to sit by the fire. Beth watched as Daryl built the fire up a little more before taking out a metal rack that they had found in an abandon cabin. He placed it over the fire and set a clean empty can on top of it. Daryl poured some of their drinking water into the can. He reached into the bag and pulled out an old white t-shirt they had found and tore a stripped of the shirt off. After dropping the strip into the water, he covered the can with a slightly larger can lid, and sat back as he waited for the water to boil.

They sat there quietly, staring at the can over the fire and listening for the sound of walkers. Beth didn't need Daryl to tell her to hold off on any conversations. They were still too close to the walkers on the road for comfort. There was a good chance the walkers may head in their direction before they left in the morning and there could be more in the woods.

Daryl bit the side of his thumb as he looked up at the sky. It wouldn't be long until the sun set. Beth could see that Daryl was anxious for the water to boil before then. Once night had fallen, Daryl would put out the fire to keep from attracting any walkers that may be close by. Beth knew Daryl wanted to get her cut cleaned and wrapped up before then. If they end up having to fight off walkers that night, they didn't want to take the chance of Beth's cut getting infected from touching a walker.

When Daryl judged enough time had passed for the water to have boiled for a while, something they both learned from experience, Daryl used the hot pads, another essential item they had found in the abandon cabin, to pull the can from the fire. He poured the boiling water into another empty, clean can so it would cool off quicker. He dumped the strip of shirt into their last empty can and set the hot can back on the fire

After enough time had past. Daryl took the strip of shirt out of the can by its ends. He wrung out as much water as he could before placing it back into the can on the fire, each end of the shirt hanging over the edge of the can. He wanted to dry the shirt as much as possible before wrapping Beth's hand. A few minutes later, Daryl touched the can that had the boiling water in it. It felt cool enough for him to hold without using a hot pad. Beth watched as Daryl poured a little on his fingers to check the temperature. When he judged the temperature of the water wasn't too hot, he approached Beth. "Let me see ya hand."

Beth held out her hand. Daryl held her hand still as he poured the warm water over the cut. They both hope it was enough to keep any infections at bay. If they got lucky the next day and found alcohol, they will pour it over her cut too, but alcohol was hard to come by. It was probably one of the first things to go when the turn happened.

When the sunset was drawing to an end, Daryl removed the strip of shirt from the fire. He gently wrapped Beth's hand. When Daryl finished, they both went to work in putting out the fire and packing up. Neither one of them were going to get much sleep tonight.


End file.
